Unwound

by Yolanda Olson

  steady whirring.

  “Finally awake, sleepyhead?”

  My body gave a start. I had forgotten that Edison was here

  with me and to be honest, I had half expected him to be gone

  when I woke up. Just like Morrison had left me and just like I had left London.

  Wait a minute.

  “Edison? When I was … shutting down, I heard you say ‘I’ll

  never let her hurt you again’. Who were you referring to?” I asked slowly turning to face him. It seemed that he had never left the

  spot on the floor next to my bed.

  “You must’ve dreamed that,” he said with a shrug.

  “I don’t dream,” I replied bluntly.

  108

  Unwound

  “Then I’m not sure what to tell you Caelum. I know I didn’t

  say anything of the such,” he answered looking somewhat

  thoughtful.

  I glanced away for a moment. I couldn’t help but wonder why

  he would lie about that. Then again, I also wondered if my mind

  had played a trick on me and I was back to hearing borrowed

  thoughts again. Either way I decided to dismiss it for now. One

  thing I was not going to dismiss however was the sting that I had

  felt and the rush that passed throughout me soon after.

  “Turn out your pockets,” I said looking back at him.

  “Excuse me?” he asked adjusting his spectacles.

  “What are those for?” I inquired momentarily changing the

  subject. I had seen them in movies and I had seen some of the

  humans wearing them but I never did know what they were truly

  used for.

  “My glasses? These are for vision correction,” he replied.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “No,” he said with a kind smile, “It helps me see things

  better.”

  I stared at his face for a moment. He looked so wise with

  those glasses as he called them. Like an infant child discovering

  109

  Unwound

  something new, I reached over and removed the glasses from his

  face. I was curious as to how he looked without them. I felt a

  smile playing on my lips. He looked as beautiful as ever and those eyes would always be the most magnificent shade of gray I would

  ever see. I forced myself to stop looking at him so that I could put his glasses on and see the world as he saw it. I hadn’t had them on for a second or two before I immediately pulled them back off

  and stared at him. How could he see the world as blurred as this?

  “Everyone’s sight is different,” he said with a knowing smile.

  “You probably can’t see through those because your eyes are

  better than mine, I can see through them just fine though. Nothing is blurred to me when I have them on.”

  “Oh.”

  I handed them back to him and watched them slip them back

  onto his face.

  “Edison, turn out your pockets,” I demanded again.

  “I’d ask you to turn out yours as well, but your pockets

  happen to be over by the window,” he said with a good natured

  laugh as he stood up and did as I asked of him. There was nothing

  in either pocket. No trace of what he had used against my skin

  before I slept. I was becoming quickly confused with what

  happened before I slept. But then it dawned on me what he had

  110

  Unwound

  just said.

  “What?”

  He leaned his body toward the window and retrieved my

  undergarment, my pants, and my shirt and neatly placed them in a

  pile next to my cot as he sat back down.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I thought you would sleep more

  comfortably naked, so as you slept, I undressed you.”

  I suddenly became very aware of the cool blanket against my

  skin. I closed my eyes and wondered what he thought of my scar

  ridden body. How could he still sit here with me and keep watch

  now knowing what a monster looks like? I felt his fingers brush

  my hair out of my face again and I opened my eyes. He still wore

  that friendly smile on his face and I secretly wondered what he

  was hiding behind those mesmerizing eyes.

  “Thank you,” was all I could say.

  111

  Unwound

  Nine

  The next couple of months went by quickly. Every waking

  moment I spent was with Edison. He had become a constant,

  positive companion which was a something I never had before. I'd

  also come to trust him very quickly and let him take the

  measurements he had asked of me previously. There were days

  when Edison would do nothing but work on the sketch I had

  made of myself, still keeping to himself whatever he was doing

  with it. I didn't ask why. I just knew that everything would come

  in due time.

  One thing he had shared with me so far was what the sting

  was the night I slept while he kept a watchful eye over me. He

  told me that he had injected me with a solvent that would keep

  my insides, if I indeed was what I said I was, working constantly

  and at a proper pace. The liquid was an amber color and always

  felt so cool as it ran freely through my body. To be honest, I

  noticed from the first secret injection he had given me, that the

  ticking inside had me had become much more subtle and the

  glitch in my arm from the battle with Cassara had stopped. I also

  noticed that my skin was no longer withering and that I was

  beginning to become the pale color London had used for my base.

  From that moment on, I freely accepted the injections every night.

  112

  Unwound

  Edison had moved me away from the factory into a log cabin

  he owned. He told me we would return to the factory when the

  time was right, but for now he wanted me to be away from there

  and be able to live as a human for a few months and then we

  would "get to work". I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but I had gladly accepted his offer.

  I was glad to be in a modest home. London's estate was as

  maniacal as she was leaving me to wonder who would build such

  a place, but here in Edison's cabin, the constant smell of fresh

  pine and the chill of the coming winter months made feel truly

  alive. He stayed there with me of course making sure that I would

  get my nightly treatments as he called them. He would build fires

  in the small fireplace and we would sit across from each other in

  spacious, leather chairs and tell each other stories. The night I told him off all of the horrors I had suffered at London's hands since

  my "birth", he had tears in his eyes. From the first time I acknowledged life to the last brutal and savage act she had made

  me endure. As I finished, I got up from the chair and told him it

  was time for me to rest, feeling terrible that I had made him cry.

  He followed me to the room he had given to me as my very own

  and pulled the covers over my chest, kissing me on the forehead. I heard him sniffle as he to go to his own room and I touched the

  spot he had kissed. I rested soundly that night.

  The next morning, Edison's entire demeanor had changed.

  113

  Unwound

  I walked down the short hallway into the area where he made

  food for himself to eat and saw him leaning against the cedar

  table, looking out the w
indow. He had a cup of something that

  was letting out steam. I stood there for a moment without him

  noticing. I watched as he blew out the steam every now and then,

  taking a sip of what he was holding.

  Finally he acknowledged me.

  "Have you ever seen snow Caelum?" he asked his eyes still trained on the outside world.

  "In a movie once."

  Setting down his cup, he gestured for me to follow him. We

  walked to the front door which he opened for me and stepped

  aside so that I could step out into the brisk morning air.

  I gasped.

  The world seemed to be covered in a beautiful white blanket.

  The evergreen trees still had shown some green as the snow had

  covered most of their needles which made the rest of the world

  look so majestic. I stepped off of the front porch into the snow

  and looked down. It felt cool against my feet and I squatted down

  to be able to scoop up a handful. I held it close to my nose and

  inhaled. The snow didn't smell any different than the air but it

  really was the most beautiful thing I had seen in such a long time.

  114

  Unwound

  "Do you like it?" Edison asked.

  Lost in my euphoria I had forgotten that I wasn't alone and

  turned to see him leaned over the side of the porch with his hands folded in front of him smiling at me. I nodded and let the snow

  drop back to the ground.

  "Good, because we will be working outside a lot now that

  nature has given us this additional obstacle. I plan on making you strong. Stronger than you've probably ever thought possible. We'll get that last gleam of fear out of your eyes and get rid of that

  slight hunch before I'm done with you," he said coming off the porch. "Follow me, this morning we're going to start."

  He lead the way to the back of the cabin where there was a

  stump of a tree with something lodged in its center.

  "This is an ax," he said as I looked at it curiously. "I want you to pull this from this stump and chop down that tree," he said pointing to one of the smaller evergreens.

  I laughed. I had too. How could he expect me to do such a

  thing?

  Edison gave me a sharp look for the first time since I had met

  him which caused me to immediately cease. He pulled the ax

  from its home and threw it at the tree with such a ferocity that it went through it. I heard the cracking of the tree as the damage he 115

  Unwound

  had just done to it started to slowly split it in half. The tree fell apart with one half of it landing between Edison and I. He

  retrieved the ax and with one strong movement, hammered it back

  in its place.

  "Your turn," he said crossing his arms over his chest and looking at me.

  I looked down at the ax. I was flooded with the memory of

  ripping the door off the closet in London's home. I remembered

  ripping the boards off the factory entrance, and I remembered

  kicking a hole in them. I remembered pulling the small plastic

  door off of the box that held the newspaper.

  I looked up at the tree. It was much bigger and thicker than

  either thing I had previously destroyed without meaning too, but I knew they were made of the same thing with the exception of the

  plastic box. I stood there in a pair of black, flannel sleep pants that he had lent me for when my body rested at night, nothing on

  my feet, and no shirt to cover my scar-ridden torso. With as

  plainly as I looked, I knew I was so much more. I knew I was

  stronger than I looked and I knew that I could do this if I set my mind to it.

  My body tensed as I approached the tree. The ripples on my

  stomach tightened as I stood in front of the tree. With everything I could possibly muster from deep inside of me I made a fist.

  116

  Unwound

  "Caelum, you can't possibly --"

  I never heard the rest of what Edison was saying to me over

  the sound of the tree splitting as I hit it with all the force I had inside of me.

  I was feeling completely proud of myself for what I had just

  done and I glanced at Edison. He was shaking his head and

  looking at me in disapproval.

  "That was unbelievably careless. Look at your hand now," he said reproachfully.

  I looked down instantly becoming horrified. The skin on my

  hands looked like it had been torn to shreds and parts of the bone and mechanical things inside of me were showing through. I

  didn't know what to do. By demonstrating that I didn't need the

  help of an ax to bring the tree down, I wound up causing myself

  injury.

  "Let's go inside," Edison suggested seeing the pained look on my face. My hand was starting to burn a bit. "I can fix that but I'll need to go out and hunt for a bit."

  I felt his hand on my back as he steered back into the cabin.

  How could he fix what I had just done to myself? Why would he

  need to go hunting to do so? As I let him lead me into the sitting room, he told me to take special care to stay away from the heat

  117

  Unwound

  of the fireplace and to stay by the window he had just opened.

  "That skin is rotten now. If you go near the heat it will make you smell and cause the rest of the skin on your arm to rot. Then

  I'll be working forever to fix you," he said with a smile.

  He disappeared into his room and I heard him rustling about

  in there. I looked down at my hand again and contemplated

  pulling out everything in me that wasn't human now that I could

  see it. I hated being able to see these things from time to time and I still see them sometimes when I glance quickly at myself in the

  mirror on the rare occasions that I can bring myself to do so.

  "Give me your arm, Caelum."

  I jumped in startled surprise. I was so deep in thought I hadn't

  seen Edison reappear. He was now wearing a large coat made of

  dark greens and some black with pants to match. He wore a wool

  cap pulled down over his head and dark gloves as well. In his

  hand he held a syringe in which I could see the serum he would

  give me only at night. I'd ask him later why he decided to give it to me at this time, for now I just extended my arm and let him

  inject me.

  "I'll be back as soon as I can," he said grabbing the rifle he had leaned next to my chair and disappeared out into the snow

  covered wonderland outside.

  118

  Unwound

  Glancing out the window I could feel my body wanting to rest.

  I was becoming tired very quickly and couldn't understand why. I

  fought to keep my eyes opened, but that fight didn't last very long.

  Before I knew it my eyes had closed.

  When I came out of my resting phase the sun was staring to

  go down over the horizon and I could hear Edison working on

  something outside. I sat there for a moment feeling myself

  becoming fully restored.

  I heard something being dragged around the side of the house

  Edison grunting as he dropped something. I heard the front door

  open and watched him step in and place a large

  canvas bag down, setting the rifle down by the door. He

  pulled his cap off and tossed it on one of the counters and

  removed his coat which he hung on a hook on the wall. Leaving

  whatever he was dragging in the bag by the door he walked over

  to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wat
er and drank it in almost one gulp.

  He glanced over at me and I closed my eyes slightly so that he

  didn't know I was awake yet. I wanted to see what was in that bag

  and I had a feeling he wouldn't produce it if he knew I was

  watching him. Edison took a deep breath and went over to the bag

  which he slung over his shoulder and disappeared into his room

  with. After a few moments, I heard him emerge from his room,

  119

  Unwound

  locking the door firmly behind him, and disappearing into the

  washroom. I waited until I heard the sound of the water pouring

  out of the metal spout he called a shower, before I got up and

  walked over to the window. I craned my head out to look and

  could see a big pool of scarlet against the pure white snow.

  It was obvious he had slaughtered something. Instinctively, I

  climbed out of the window and lowered myself as gently as I

  could with one working hand. I walked a few feet to the puddle

  and reached down my fingers to graze it. It was cold now because

  of the snow, but I lifted it to my nose and smelled iron. I stared at my scarlet stained fingertips and wondered where I had smelled

  that before.

  The night that London had torn her fingernails from their beds,

  I had smelled the iron strongly. This was blood I smelled.

  The water in the washroom stopped. I couldn't hear it

  anymore, but for how long it was stopped I wasn't quite sure.

  Frantically, I ran back to the window and hoisted myself up with

  one arm and dove for the chair hoping I had beat Edison out of

  the room.

  "That was a hell of a jump."

  I jumped and looked up behind me. Edison was standing there

  120

  Unwound

  looking at me with a carefully blank expression on his face. I

  guess I wasn't as fast as I hoped I could be.

  "I saw the blood outside," I mumbled looking down at my

  shredded hand.

  "It's okay. Curiosity doesn't hurt," he said. "I'll fix your hand after I've eaten. I'm a little tired and hungry right, but I promise to do it right after."

  "What's that like?" I asked looking back up at him.

  "What?" he asked coming around the chair and heading into the food preparation area.

  "Hunger."

  Leaning back against the counter he looked at me, "I’m not

  really sure how to explain it. The body, the human body, needs

  food to survive. Hunger makes you tired, weak, malnourished if